For four generations, Russ & Daughters on the Lower East Side of Manhattan has purveyed its wares of fish-oriented, traditional Jewish food. And on August 26, 36 people came to a tasting venue on Astor Place to savor the wares of what the London’s Sunday Times once called the “Louvre of Lox.”

William Korey spent more than 30 years of his life deeply involved with the struggle to allow free emigration for Soviet Jews. But when I interviewed him in his Queens apartment a few years ago, he did not hide the fact that he never liked to work on individual cases. “There would be no end to it,” he told me.

Taglit-Birthright Israel, the highly regarded Jewish communal initiative that has sent more than 200,000 young Jews on free trips to Israel, has carefully tended its image as pluralistic and inclusive. But the religious slant and political orientation of the largest, most well-funded organizer of follow-up programs for Birthright alumni is raising concerns, even among top Birthright officials.